Tom Steyer focuses on environment and big corporations in visit to Charles City

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Break the corporate stranglehold and stabilize the climate crisis.

That’s billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer’s message to America.

Steyer, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, stopped by Dave’s Restaurant in Charles City for a meet-and-greet with potential voters on Monday morning.

“If we want real change, we need new and different people in charge,” said Steyer, 62, a staunch supporter of term limits for U.S. senators and representatives.

“I believe in democracy. I believe in the people in this room and the rooms just like this across America,” he said.

Steyer has participated in the last two Democratic debates. His campaign announced that it has received enough support in certain polls for Steyer to also attend the next Democratic debate on Dec. 19 in Los Angeles.

Steyer has a reported net worth of $1.6 billion, gained largely from his work as founder of the investment firm Farallon Capital. He stepped down from that hedge fund company in 2012 to pursue environmental endeavors to improve the welfare of the planet by finding alternative energy sources.

He said climate change is a global problem.

“If we do those two things then we will have done exactly what my parents were trying to do in their life. Which is leave the camping site better than they found it – pass on a safe, better world to the next generation. Succeed,” said Steyer.

The son of a lawyer who tried Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials, Steyer touts his ability to take on big business. He said he has fought and won over oil companies, big tobacco and large corporations that he feels are taking over America and cutting out middle America.

“I have spent a decade organizing coalitions of ordinary Americans to stand up for their rights and take on unchecked corporate power. And for a decade we’ve been winning,” he said.

He has been an outspoken opponent of the implementation of the Keystone Pipeline, saying it is destroying the environment and the people that live near it.

“People think that corporations are too rich and too well-advised and too professional to be beaten. I can tell you they’re not. I’ve been beating them. They’re not that smart,” said Steyer. “They have an enormous amount of money. But the American people are smarter and there are a lot more of us than there are of them.”

Steyer is a Yale grad who founded the non-profit political advocacy group NextGen America and started “The Need to Impeach” campaign in October 2017. The campaign, from which he stepped down as president to begin his run for political office this summer, has received over 8 million signatures on its petition to remove President Donald Trump from the White House.

Steyer said Democratic voters need to come to the ballots in droves to create a political firestorm of change.

“You know the old Winston Churchill saying, ‘Americans always do the right thing after they try everything else.’ I believe we have now tried everything else and I believe we’re going to do the right thing. And I think it’s going to be a gigantic success and we’re going to be really proud of what we accomplished,” said Steyer.

Steyer, who was born in Manhattan, New York, and lives in San Francisco, is largely self-funding his campaign.

He’s also giving money to fund causes he believes in and supports. The creation of TomKat Ranch in Pescadero, California, an 1,800 acre cattle ranch., was built to find ways to grow sustainable agriculture and increase biodiversity.

In 2010, Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, followed in Warren Buffet and Bill Gates’ footsteps by joining the initiative they founded called “The Giving Pledge.”

“I started a business when I was 28 years old. One room, no windows, no employees, no money from my parents,” said Steyer. “I built that business over 27 years. I took the giving pledge to give at least half of my money to good causes while I’m alive.”

Steyer feels corporate greed has affected laws that could be passed that could help clean up the world’s oceans and polluted air. He said that effort would benefit towns like Charles City.

“Congress has never passed climate legislation and we just can’t afford to wait. We can create millions of good paying union jobs across the country as we combat the climate crisis,” Steyer said. “Part of this program is explicitly going to be partnering with rural America as a solution. It’s going to be part of rejuvenating and reinvigorating the economies in rural America.

Asked how important it was for Iowa to maintain its position as the starting point in the process to determine presidential candidates, Steyer had a pointed answer.

“Shockingly important. People here are really serious about politics. They play a special role. It’s hard to overestimate how serious that role is for this state,” he said.

Iowa holds its caucus on Feb. 3.

Steyer received 3% of the support by Iowans in a Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll released in the middle of November. That tied him with Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Kamala Harris, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and entrepreneur Andrew Yang. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg led the poll with 25%, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 16%, former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders at 15%, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar at 6%.